


What Might Have Been

by Haywire



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, F/F, F/M, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-19
Updated: 2014-04-19
Packaged: 2018-01-19 23:08:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1487524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haywire/pseuds/Haywire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Willow thinks she has a good idea to bring her and Oz even closer together than ever. Whether or not it actually works as intended, however...</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Might Have Been

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bewize](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bewize/gifts).



Blood spilled over the edge of the goblet, trickling in a thick, dark streak down the side of Willow’s face. Her eyes went wide with fear; had she messed up the ritual? Carefully putting the cup down on the mat before her, she peered inside of it. She’d drank as much as she could get out of it, and none of it had spilled on the ground, so she reckoned she’d be ok. Willow started to raise her sleeve to wipe her mouth, halting before actually touching herself with the pale fabric of her shirt.

“Ew, bloodstains.” She shook her head and instead looked around for something else to use.

Before she could find anything appropriate, there was a knock on her door, and a familiar voice came from the hallway.

“Will, are you almost ready to go?” Oz asked.

“Oh! Right, the thing, I, um.” Willow whipped her head around to look outside her window. It was getting dark and tonight was a full moon. A glance at her alarm clock confirmed how late it was. She’d spent far too long on the ritual and had completely lost track of time. Buffy was out visiting her mother so she hadn’t been there to remind her, though had her roommate been home Willow wouldn’t have been doing what she’d been doing anyway.

“Yeah, the thing. It’s kind of important, so…”

Willow’s hand finally found a box of tissues, and she snatched one out, dragging it across her face. “No, I know, I’m coming!” After checking herself in the mirror to ensure all the blood was gone she tossed the tissue into her wastebasket and opened the door with a smile on her face.

“Hey.” Oz said, grinning ever so slightly at his girlfriend.

“Hi.” she replied, returning the awkward grin.

“Not to rush you or anything, but we should get going.” He nodded towards the exit.

“Right, because of the thing. We can continue this lively conversation on the way.” Willow said with a smile.

They drove faster than usual to the crypt where Willow locked Oz up each night of the full moon. Thankfully there wasn’t much in the way of traffic and they made it there in record time. Oz pulled the van up close and hopped out when they came to a complete halt. Willow followed him inside, checking the sky in an attempt to gauge just how close they were cutting it.

Once they were inside Oz made a beeline for the enclosed portion of the crypt, swinging open the metal grate with a loud squeak. He turned around once inside and opened his mouth to speak to Willow, but stopped when he saw she had followed him inside.

“Will, you know the whole point of locking me in by myself is to, you know. Lock me in by myself, right?”

“I know, but I, uh.” She shuffled her feet, turning to look for signs of moonrise but unable to do so through from where they stood in the crypt. “There’s something I need to tell you first.”

“Can’t it wait until morning? Because werewolf.” Oz gestured at himself as he started to remove articles of clothing, first his shoes as he hopped from foot to foot in the process.

He stopped hopping with one shoe partly removed when he saw Willow taking off her own clothes.

“That whole ‘can’t it wait until morning’ bit wasn’t a line, by the by.” Oz said, eyebrow raised. “Which would be especially kinky considering what I’m about to turn into shortly. Not that I’m judging.” he added.

“I know, I just-” she started, stopping when her boyfriend’s eyes grew wide with realization. He remained quiet for a few heartbeats before breaking his own stoic silence.

“How?”

“Oz, I-”

“ _How?_ ” he repeated with emphasis. Why was another burning question but he had an inkling about that, even if he certainly didn’t agree with burdening her with the same curse he had to endure. How was the stumper for him, and he clutched at that straw while his blood boiled, mainly from his pending transformation but in part at this recent development.

“I found this ritual, it wasn’t that complicated, and… and I thought that… I mean, we’re a couple and we’re always going to be together, so I always want to be together with you. Even when, you know.” Willow grimaced as a bolt of pain shot through her body, causing her to stumble and clutch the nearby gate.

“Willow!” Oz grunted as similar yet familiar forces started within himself. “You need to get out of here, we can’t be locked up together.”

“But that’s the, ungh, that’s the plan!” she protested, gritting her teeth and closing her eyes. “For us to be together.”

“Willow, I can’t control myself when I shift. What if I… I mean, what if we…” He took a deep breath and tried to slow the process as much as he could, which he knew was a losing battle. “Maybe Buffy can-”

“She’s at her mom’s,” Willow explained, shaking her head. Before she could continue she screamed and fell to her knees, rolling over onto her side.

“You have to… get… out!” Oz tried to get to her, to push her prone form outside of the cage and shut the door, which would have at least separated them, or failing that to at least lock them in together away from the outside world.

He couldn’t do either, as he fell beside her, unable to maintain his resistance any longer. His eyes rested on Willow as he witnessed her transformation. Shocks of blood red fur appeared where her body had once rested, and a flash of fangs was the last thing he remembered seeing before blacking out.

Willow was somehow still aware of what was going on, although it was more than fair to say that the blinding pain of the process had distracted her momentarily. Once she had fully shifted, however, her senses quickly adjusted to their enhanced levels. The previously dimly lit crypt was clearly visible through her new eyes, and her ears perked up at the sound of Oz rising from the ground in his other form.

Instinct made her attempt to talk to him, but no sound came out. No sound like her normal voice, at least, and a guttural growl came out instead. Were Oz looked over at her, growling in reply and crouching low as he turned to face her. Once again her instinct struck her, this time to raise herself to a taller height and roar at Oz. He cowered at the noise and backed down, remaining low to the ground but no longer bearing his fangs at her.

She turned and, satisfied he would follow, bounded outside of the crypt. Something in the back of her mind told her that she shouldn’t leave, that they should stay, but Willow couldn’t remember why for the life of her. Oz followed her, giving her some distance, and together they prowled the streets of Sunnydale, sticking to the shadows whenever possible and searching for prey.

As drew closer to the university campus, a vaguely familiar face came into Willow’s view. She couldn’t place where she knew the blonde from, precisely, and her grip on her mind was getting weaker and weaker with each passing second. Something about her was important, however, and she drew closer to the lone figure.

The girl, somehow sensing her silent stalkers, turned and screamed at the sight. She quickly reached into her purse, frantically searching for something inside.

“N-n-n-no! Stay b-back!” she yelled as Willow drew near. She was running now, the muscles beneath her red fur rippling with the motion. Oz was just behind her to one side, and he howled at the thrill of it all.

Once she got close enough, Willow leapt through the air, hurling herself at the woman, who had finally found what she was looking for. Her hand clutched tightly to a decorative pendant of some sort, and she mumbled some words hastily, even as Willow was soaring towards her.

The pendant glowed menacingly and, awash with angry light, it blasted a beam of light outwards. The beam slammed into the werewolves with enough force to halt their motion and send them backwards with a violent jolt. Oz went immediately silent at the impact, having been rendered unconscious, and Willow lay on her side, unable to move.

The girl was still clutching her amulet in one hand, but now held another object in her other. The moonlight shone brightly on the silver blade, its flashes telegraphing the fact that the hunted had now become the hunter. Willow would have laughed had she been able, but instead she locked eyes on the woman, who was now raising the blade over her head, and-

Willow waved her hand, breaking the pool of water in the large bowl beneath her face as she pulled up her head at the same time. Both motions broke the spell and ended her scrying into the potential past, and she shook her head back and forth.

“It was just a dream, Will. Just a dream. Or something.” she muttered under her breath, leaning back against her chair, well away from the table and the bowl she’d used as the focus for her scrying spell.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and tried to forget what she’d just seen. Looking at the past and wondering what might have been was something everyone did, she told herself, and when she’d discovered a spell that let her do more than that the temptation had been too overwhelming. So she’d taken a look back, which had turned into more than a look.

The tome where she’d found the spell made it clear that what she’d see would be only one of an infinite number of possibilities, so who knew whether that would’ve actually happened or not, but that one use of the spell had been more than enough looking back to last her a lifetime, at least magically speaking.

“Note to self, burn that book tomorrow.”

**Author's Note:**

> Written as a 'what if?' fic for bewize for The Third Rare Ship Swap. Set early in Season 4 of BtVS, with great liberties taken with the canon, apologies in advance. :)


End file.
